Saturday, August 7, 2010

Hello internet world!I have been cooking more frequently lately, though baking less, and have been wanting to post some of my creations. This post will only encompass the mess of treats I assembled for dogs and cats!

Long story short, the humane society will have a booth this weekend at the Speidie Fest in Binghamton , and at all of these events volunteers bake "cookies" for people to buy for their dogs and cats, all proceeds going to the humane society. Also at the booth are toys, leashes and collars for dogs and cats, and pictures of the current adoptable animals.So in comes me! I became feverish with the need to bake and after scouring the internet assembled a mix of recipes into two - one for dogs, and one for cats.

Fresh out of the oven, cooling

Just frosted with royal icing

Notice the difference between the flowers in this picture, and above. Leaving them to harden as we went off to dinner, Eloise the mischievous cat decided to lick away the not-yet-hardened frosting on the flowers I finished last. Brian did not believe me until I showed him the "before we left" shot. We then discovered a bit of green frosting on her whiskers as well. Caught red-handed!

I researched a few recipes on the internet before making my own concoctions which I then scribbled down for future reference..

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Cookies & Royal Icing

2 cups flour1 cup quick oats1/2 cup peanut butter1 1/4 cups hot water

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add in peanut butter and hot water, scraping bowl occasionally.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.Flour a flat surface and rolling pin; roll out dough and use cookie cutters to shape. Place cookies on greased cookie sheet, bake for 30-40 minutes.When cookies are slightly browned on the edges they are done.Cool on baking racks for at least 20 minutes before letting your dog(s) "test".

Makes about 50 small dog bone sized cookies, obviously depends on size of cookies you are making.

Mix together all ingredients and stir until well-combined. Must use QUICKLY as this hardens up pretty fast, which makes it great for treats that could otherwise be messy.*NOTE: I read somewhere raw egg normally used in royal icing is bad for dogs, so I had to go to Wegman's and search for meringue powder. This amount of frosting was plenty for the number of cookies I made to have a thin layer. Dogs approve of these treats with or without the frosting so if you are making these and don't need much sugar so simple decorations or a thin layer of frosting works best and still looks pretty!

Carob decorationsI had originally bought carob ahead of finding an exact recipe or method of going about making these, so after looking for a carob frosting once I had the chips, I then realized I didn't really need them, but wanted to use what I had already.

Note to readers - carob chips apparently don't melt as well as chocolate chips, I have since found by further researching on the internet that the carob powder is much better for melting, food for thought :)

I had a hard time getting the right consistency; I added some vegetable oil and a little water and thinned out the paste a bit and then dipped some dog bones in my fakey-chocolate. These came out really well, but then when I tried to thin out the carob again to drizzle it over the frosted cookies, I had a bit of a failure. Even after freezing the cookies overnight, the carob was barely hardening.Needless to say, they will be messy! hopefully they don't melt too bad today and tomorrow in the heat of the park at speidie fest, and someone still brings them home to their pooches!

Combine dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, then add in the wet ingredients. Dough will become VERY sticky, continue to add additional 1/2 cup flour until consistency is less elastic.Add more flour or more milk to achieve a bread-dough sort of texture.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Pinch small pieces of dough off and roll in hands to create small balls. Place dough balls on greased cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly firm to the touch and lightly browned on all sides.